Big news in US steel and mining circles yesterday. Cleveland-Cliffs, the largest North American iron ore pellet producer to the steel industry, agreed to acquire Alpha Natural Resources, with 60 coal mines, for almost $10b in a cash and stock deal according to numerous sources. The combined entity to be named Cliffs Natural Resources, expects […]

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Well, this would be an interesting one for the anti trust authorities. If the world’s largest steel maker Arcelor Mittal were to take a controlling stake in one of the world’s largest iron companies, what kind of advantage would that give Mittal over their opposition? In a Reuters article today, it is reported by Goldman […]

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In late afternoon news on Wednesday my Crain’s Chicago alert came in with the headline “Russan Suitor Wins Esmark”. We have been reporting on this story for a couple of weeks now because the battle for Esmark has been well, rather exciting and interesting.  To recap, two companies bid for Esmark, Essar of India and OAO […]

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Last week, West Virginia-based Esmark Inc. implemented a shareholder’s rights plan, also known as a “poison pill” anti-takeover measure, while the two companies bidding for Esmark continue to battle. As we discussed late last month, the interest from Russian metals-and-mining company OAO Severstal and steelmaker Essar Steel Holdings Ltd. of India springs from their desire to […]

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I am sort of surprised to see that nobody seems to be talking about a pretty major acquisition that took place yesterday. No. 1 metal service center Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co., announced they intend to acquire No. 10 service center PNA Group from Platinum Equity, a private equity firm. In a deal valued at […]

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It’s nice to be noticed for doing a great job. It’s quite another to take the heat from a CFO demanding cost reduction for steel and related metals products. Purchasing managers and their staffs have been riding a commodity volatility wave for a few years now. But some executives are just noticing the impact that […]

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Imagine this headline: “Rio Tinto Just Found a Whole Load of Copper”. Or this one: “BHP to Swallow Rio Tinto”. Both are real, and both came from Forbes. What’s interesting is the timing of one in conjunction with the second. As has been widely reported, BHP made a hostile takeover bid for Rio Tinto back […]

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Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two part series. The first part appears here
So what can we expect in the years ahead, not so much from ArcelorMittal, Lakshmi Mittal himself is a young man and will no doubt continue on this path as long as the competition authorities will allow him. No I […]

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Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series
I was reading an interesting article the other day in that most informative of publications, the Economist, about the rise Lakshmi Mittal. Mittal has become the world’s fifth richest man worth some $37b principally through his 43% stake in the world’s largest steel maker ArcelorMittal. Mittal […]

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Sorry for the rhyming. I’m in one of those moods…
Buried in the bowels of it’s Sunday edition, the Wall Street Journal had an article on how Rio Tinto Alcan became the subject of an anti-trust investigation filed by the European Commission. According to the article, the EC “charges Alcan with having abused its dominant position […]

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